UB Stadium preparations lag behind
Calistus Kolantsho | Tuesday January 27, 2026 08:55
The stadium will serve as a warm-up track during the competition scheduled for May 2 to 3. The contractor has removed the track's multi-layers, overgrown grass inside the field, and the stadium's stands.
The new track material, consisting of black rubber granules, a binding polyurethane and red coloured rubber granules, is already on site.
Yesterday, the MmegiSport crew visited the facility and saw workers idling on the stands.
“We cannot do anything because we are waiting for the South African operators to be issued with work permits,” one of the workers said.
Initially, the UB stadium was scheduled to be handed over to the Local Organising Committee (LOC) by the end of January.
According to sources, the National Stadium, which will host the competition, missed the November deadline for the handover as the facility awaits an inspector before the marking of lanes.
The lane markers are expected to arrive from Türkiye, and marking is expected to be done before the arrival of the World Athletics team, which will be in the country next month.
The initial deadline for the National Stadium handover was September 2025 and was then moved to October, before another postponement to November, which was also missed. The World Athletics delegates are expected in Gaborone in February, and there is concern that the delays might not sit well with them.
However, the Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) marketing and communications manager, Anderson Nlisana, told MmegiSport that they met the National Stadium deadline.
Regarding the UB Stadium, Nlisana said he was not aware of the progress of the project.
Nlisana said he was not in a position to give an update on the UB Stadium as he was attending Tourism Pitso in Francistown.
He referred MmegiSport to the BNSC director of business development and property management services, Makuke Makuke, who did not answer his phone at press time.
Ahead of the World Athletics Relays, the National Stadium is expected to host the Lefika International Relays on March 28 to 29, followed by the Botswana Golden Grand Prix on April 26.
Last year, failure to meet the National Stadium deadline saw the facility's track completed on the day of the Golden Prix, which resulted in the downgrade of the event to silver status.
Concerns are mounting over the progress at the UB Stadium, with February traditionally a wet month, which might disrupt progress.
The 2026 World Athletics Relays will be the first to be held in an African soil.